New addiction
Dive Log - Tioman, Malaysia (17 Aug 07 to 19 Aug 07)
Day 1: Friday evening
7pm - Arrive at Dive Centre, grab quick dinner at nearby kopitiam and load up van.
8pm - Leave for JB
9pm - Stop for supper at a hawker centre in JB
9.30pm - Head to Endau for reals!
10pm - *snore*
11pm - *snore*
12mn - Board MV Beach Boys, rigged up scuba gear, attempt to sleep
1am - Cannot sleep
3am - Still trying to sleep
5am - Have trouble sleeping
6am - Manage to concuss for approximately half an hour
Day 2: Saturday
7.30am - Get wake-up call from the Torturer. Feel like killing someone/something.
8am - Gear up and head out for first dive evah! Dive site Renggis. My new watch gets a virgin baptism, in Tioman waters no less. We get into our BCDs in the water, just to practice. Descend into a mild to moderate current, just enough to make us newbies feel a little winded and disoriented. Buoyancy a little off, so all resurface and add extra weight, which resulted in everyone being overweighted, but we only found that out later. Anyway, better over than under.
First sighting: baby barracudas! Schools of fishies swimming around a table coral. Next sighting: a baby green sea turtle! Cute fella, maybe a foot long. Then a school of bigass barras, probably adolescents. Wanted to point and squeal at everything, but regulator in mouth prevented that. Had to be silently excited, not easy. Saw filefish, giant grouper, lots of batfish, nemos, 6-banded angelfish.
9am - Surface interval and breakfast time. Lovely deep-fried sardine sandwiches, omg yum.
12am - OW Dive 2! Did skills on this one. Dive site Marine Park, viz was zero. Saw sand and more sand. Occasionally sighted the Buddy. But mostly sand. Not a great dive as could see squat.
1pm - Lunch and tanning session on top deck.
4pm - OW Dive 3! Dive site: Birdshit Rock. Practiced AAS with the Buddy, who thought we were doing CESA and tried to go up in one breath. The Torturer would’ve died laughing if he wasn’t on the verge of nitro narc from going up and down a billion times. (Sometimes it’s hard to tell with him) Saw pufferfish, beaked coralfish, bluering angelfish, and the other usual denizens.
5pm - Surfaced and chilled on deck
7pm - Advanced divers did night dive, waited for them to get back before tearing into dinner.
8.30pm - Dinner - had crab! Yums. Also met the Headhunter. Expressed desire to marry the cook as food was damn good lah. Hung out and chilled.
10pm - The Xiao Charboh calls for volunteers to sleep on the front deck. Lugged blanket up, watched stars, talked about totem animals, fell asleep.
1.45am - Woke up freezing. Didn’t know whether to leave the Xiao Charboh there or poke her in the back to wake her up. After rationalising to self that she wouldn’t roll off the boat, went down to bunk and concussed.
Day 3: Sunday
7am - Woke up to find the Xiao Charboh in her bunk. Apparently she woke up after I did and got scared when she saw there was no one up there with her. Went up to top deck and sat in the blissful serenity of the early morning. Good enough reason to be alive. Prepped for morning dive.
8am - OW Dive 4 (Certification dive)! Dive site: Chebeh. Water was damn choppy on the surface, couldn’t do surface navi skills. Descended into peacefulness. Did skills while hanging on to a fixed line. Big Fella finned by and took our last classroom pic. Underwater classroom and schools of fish; who could ask for a better education? Saw cute cuttlefish, giant grouper, bullethead parrotfish.
9am - Ascended to nasi lemak breakfast. I have changed my opinion of nasi lemak. This one damn good!
11am - First leisure dive! Woot! Back at Birdshit Rock. Did some swimthroughs, buoyancy control improving. Saw blue-spotted ribbontail ray, star pufferfish, nudibranchs of all hues, and a juvenile harlequin sweetlips.
12noon - Surface interval and lunchtime
1pm - Last dive of the trip at Tanjong Burong. Saw more nudibranchs, tons of sea anemones, a white-eyed moray eel, an emperor fish, and apparently the DM and Grace saw a stargazer but no one else did. Heh. Took another photo.
3pm - Logged dives, identified fish, luxuriated in what was left of the sunlight.
6pm - Back at Endau, board vans and head back to Dive Centre.
11pm - Reach home and crash. Miss the underwater world already.
Possibly Manado or Sipadan end of year, depending. Can’t wait!